Italian Mini-Meatloaf {Paleo & Whole30 Compliant}

April 13, 2013

One of my biggest issues with doing the Whole30 challenge was that I didn’t feel as free to experiment in the kitchen. I guess learning a whole new way of eating can knock the wind out of your creative cooking sails, eh? I didn’t want to do anything that would go against the plan. And I definitely didn’t want to jeopardize us having a decent meal on any given evening. 😉 The detox process was rough enough without tears in the kitchen.

Now that we’ve completed our Whole30, we’ve decided to keep many of the eating habits that we formed during the 30 days. So when I decided to try my hand at making meatloaf, I knew I had to adapt my normal recipe.

My first attempt was edible but rather dry and flavorless. There’s not much worse than dry, flavorless meatloaf. This is especially true when you’re not eating ketchup. Because really…. What’s meatloaf without ketchup!?

I set out to create a more flavorful mealoaf that didn’t crumble on your fork. This one also had to incorporate tomatoes or tomato sauce or SOMETHING ketchup-y. Why not try an Italian meatloaf?

Mix with a stand mixer or your hands. Note: A little spoon-mixing isn’t going to cut it for meatloaf. You either need to use a stand mixer or get your hands dirty. That’s the only way it’s going to hold together.

Spray a 12-cup muffin pan (or grease with your choice of fat).

Divide the meat mixture evenly into the 12 muffin cups.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes.

Remove from the oven and top each meatloaf with a scant 1 Tbl. marinara sauce.

Bake an additional 15 minutes or until meat is thoroughly cooked.

Let cool for 5 minutes before removing from the pan.

Homemade Marinara Sauce

I like to use homemade marinara sauce to top these. Otherwise it’s hard to find a Whole30 compliant sauce! Here’s the recipe I use for the sauce. (Used with permission from Mandi author of Easy Homemade)

I made these tonight, using all beef (grass-fed organic) and added 1 heaping TBSP of coconut flour (in addition to the almond flour) and they were not sticky and they were delicious! Made me wonder why you see all those posts complaining that there is no good Whole 30 meatloaf recipe out there… I’m going to look no further! Thank you!